Both Sides Cautious Amid Warming China-Japan Relations

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to visit China from October 25 to 27, in what is to be the first official visit by a Japanese prime minister to China in almost seven years. The visit was originally planned for October 23, the 40th anniversary of the enactment of a bilateral peace and friendship treaty between the two countries, but Beijing postponed, citing “inconvenience” in the original schedule without providing further clarification.

Some analysts suggested the change in plans was due to this year being the 150th anniversary of Japan’s Meiji Restoration, which marked the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and led to the modernization and Westernization of the country. Abe will deliver a speech at an event in Tokyo commemorating the Meiji Restoration on the morning of October 23.

The Meiji period saw the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), which marked the beginning of a series of conflicts between Japan and China that culminated in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45). China and South Korea are both sensitive to any display that can possibly be viewed as a celebration of this militaristic past.

One such contentious issue between the countries is the visits by Japanese politicians to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. The Shinto shrine was established to commemorate all Japanese soldiers who have died in wars since the Meiji Restoration, which also includes fourteen Class-A war criminals from World War II. The last visit by Abe to the shrine in 2013 elicited rebukes from the foreign ministries of China and South Korea.

Abe has sent ritual offerings to the Yasukuni Shrine every year for the spring and autumn festivals since his current administration began in 2012. In response to Abe sending ritual offerings to Yasukuni this year on October 17, China’s foreign minister urged Japan “to squarely face up to and reflect upon its invasion history.”

Despite this, the Japanese and Chinese defense ministers met for the first time in three years in Singapore on October 19 and agreed to start “full-fledged exchanges programs” in order to promote communication between their countries’ defense officials and troops. They also reaffirmed a plan to establish a hotline to prevent a military confrontation from happening accidentally over disputed islets in the East China Sea.

The dispute over the islands, called the Senkaku by Japan and the Diaoyu by China, led to a deterioration in relations between China and Japan in 2012. At the time, large public demonstrations against Japan occurred in many cities across China. Japan lodged an official protest with Beijing regarding Chinese ships sailing near the disputed islands earlier on October 17.

In an attempt to further improve relations, China and Japan are also set to reach a broad agreement to lease more pandas to Japan’s zoos. The previous agreement on the subject, reached by then-Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in 2011, was shelved following the deterioration of relations the next year.